It's Lemon Time! Again!

Lemons for pie, cakes, cookies, seasoning, drinks, they are all good. Now is the time to take advantage of your backyard lemons, or ask and perhaps take advantage of someone else's back yard fruit.

There is an alley I walk and down that alley is a Meyer Lemon tree that is just LOADED with fruit. If there was some hang-over fruit, I would feel free to pick some, but not so with these. The fruit is just out of reach on the other side of the fence AND there is a young, extremely alert and noisy dog that ferociously announces my passage--every time!

Meyers are not quite so tart as regular lemons and are more aromatic. They ripen to a lemony-orange color and are more spherical than the usual store-bought fruit. They make a beautiful display on the tree, bright and cheery.

There are certain recipes I would like to indulge in and preserve if I can get some of those Meyers. Lemonade concentrate, Strawberry Lemonade concentrate, lemon jelly, lemon marmalade, lemon curd! Good lemon products are great to make at home when your main ingredient is free.

Maybe I should stop writing and walk down to the street and approach this problem from the front of the house where the Lemon tree resides. A promise of some lemonade concentrate could be made in return for a load of lemons. . . It could be a win-win situation: sweets plus a tree clean-up for the owners and sweets and more for me!

If you should come upon some free lemons, or even if you have to pay for them, try the lemon curd recipe that I wrote about last year: Lemon Curd--try this with those new-found powers of HOME CANNING! It really is a very good recipe and is rich and flavorful and eminently worthy of eating by the spoon. Of course, try some as a cake or tart filling, eat it on sugar cookies, it's great.